I am a 52 year old female, currently receiving physical therapy for an acute lower left back strain. I take prescription Zoloft at a low dose of 25 mg per day and a long history of migraines since age 17. On my last p.t. visit, my therapist was doing a spinal massage and then did a lot of heavy pressing on pressure points on and near my lower and mid spine. I rolled over on the table and almost immediately, felt pins and needles sensations on the top of my head and left side of my face. I mentioned it to the therapist and he said my face was all red. About 30 seconds later, the pins and needles feeling was in my left leg, then 20-30 seconds later, in my left arm. By now he had me get up and said to get a drink of water and relax. I walked fine, was not off balance, did not slur or anything, but my arm felt weak, and my vision was a bit like a classic migraine where there were some foggy spots in my vision, for about 3 minutes. The therapist had me sit down to take my blood pressure. I had just come there from my regular doctor appt where my blood pressure was 120/60, which is fairly normal for me. Now it was reading 176/80. He had me sit there and kept taking b/p readings until it returned to 120/80 and I felt better. It took about 45 minutes in all.
My question is, it seems coincidental this happened immediately after the spine pressure he was performing. Is that possible? Or should I be very concerned it could be a stroke? My father had a stroke when he was 62. Thank you

It is likely impossible for us to say if this is coincidental or something different entirely (like a stroke). I would not think stroke based on your description, but there is also a fairly common condition called TIA which is kind of a mini-stroke. If you should experience something like this again, I would recommend getting to your emergency department right away for evaluation because if you do have a stroke, time can be of the essence in your healing process. This is one reason it's good to know your family health history.